CANDIDATE FOR AREA 4 TRUSTEE : John J. Wernert, M.D.

Times of uncertainty and turmoil present opportunities for healthy evolution. The stable professional environment we have known as the“ American health care system” has shifted beneath our collective feet. Changing to meet these challenges is no longer optional.

It is an unfortunate reality that politicians and policy makers are driving the debate in health care reform. Definitions of “value-added” services, reimbursement rates, and medical decision making are more likely made by M.B.A.s rather than M.D.s. As the United States moves inevitably toward a single-payer, government-sponsored health care system, physician organizations must speak in a loud, clear, and unified voice to advocate for the services our patients need.

Our APA has been that clear voice representing psychiatry at the planning table. Yet, our organization must adapt itself to the demanding medical world we now live in, not pine for the constancy of yesteryears.

I am a candidate for the Area 4 trustee because I believe our APA is at a crossroad. The APA Board of Trustees has provided strong leadership over the years, but is frequently mired in administrative decisions of the present rather than strategic planning of our professional future.

My father was a lifelong member of APA. As a state hospital superintendant in the 1960s and a private practitioner in the 1970s, he was a role model for professional commitment and duty to my patients. My mother has been a psychiatric nurse for 49 years and continues to work part time with chronic mentally ill patients in our hometown of Louisville, Ky. My mother has demonstrated the compassion and civic involvement that have guided my life. I have been an APA member since 1985 and have served in all offices of our Indiana district branch including president in 1994-95. I have proudly served our state as an Indiana representative to the APA Assembly since 1998. I currently serve on the Assembly Committee on Planning and the Nominating Committee. I am particularly proud of my service on the APA Political Action Committee Board of Directors, serving as chairman since 2003. I have spent these five years speaking out to our members and leadership about the importance of political action and the financial investment we all must make to gain political access. With the hard work of our PAC members and staff, we have grown the PAC by over 250 percent, and have focused congressional contributions in concert with our Department of Government Relations. The results have been outstanding as evidenced by APA's role in passing the historic Medicare legislation, and most recently the long-awaited parity bill. Both of these monumental wins were clearly a team effort, and both will have a profound positive impact on our members and patients.

Our future successes are dependent upon standing with the House of Medicine. I have served as an APA alternate delegate to the AMA House of Delegates. I am currently vice speaker of the Indiana State Medical Association House of Delegates. I have served as president of the Indiana polis Medical Society and an alternate trustee of our state medical association. Enhancing our standing as psychiatrists in organized medicine is essential to our continued legislative success.

Most of all, I value my work with patients and students. As a 20-year clinician and volunteer faculty member, I feel nothing is more important than modeling compassionate and expert care. Our residents and early career colleagues deserve to “see” and “feel” all the benefits and professional rewards of being a psychiatrist. I work hard each day to project passion for our profession and enthusiasm about our future.

I am running for the APA Board of Trustees because I believe our experienced, actively practicing, mid-career psychiatrists must step forward and be active leaders. I have served our Association on the county, state, and national level, and I have the experience and gusto to push our professional agenda. I believe in our APA and respectfully ask all members of Area 4 to support my candidacy for Area trustee.